If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Cruz has not led the league in drops in either of the last two seasons.

Last year Calvin Johnson, Wes Welker, and Brandon Marshall all had more drops than Cruz.

In 2011 Wes Welker, Roddy White, and Brandon Marshall all had more drops than Cruz.

I understand your point and agree with you, but he does need to work on improving. He knows he's doing it, it's a matter of keeping his head in the game all the time. I know he's trying to get more yards and he does.

“Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.” MB Rule # 1

Cruz is better then Welker at this point in their careers so you cannot expect Cruz to take "WELKER MONEY" Welker is 31 years old and gets injured a lot and he is also much smaller

The last 2 years Cruz been better then Welker...we can only judge Cruz on the last 2 season because so far that is his career, sure Welker had the better career but Cruz is basically just getting started in his career while Welker is on the way out

Are we really nitpicking about the age and maturity and drops... You want to point to a negative in Cruz's game, fine, cite a few more drops than average. How many positives does he bring to the table, talents that are not found in too many receivers? On his current climb he will easily be the best slot receiver in the NFL for the next several years. While maybe we can do as well with a less skilled slot WR, it doesnt mean Cruz himself is easily replaceable.
Not injury prone, big game performances, very likeable, local product... I would be very upset if he didnt stay here long term.

Problem is I would be equally upset about Nicks, and I'm not sure they can get both locked up long term.

When have I ever said that Cruz isn't an excellent receiver, isn't either the best or second best slot receiver in the game, or that I think he'd be easily replaceable? However, people tend to look at my critiques and believe that I think he sucks, which is far from the truth.

Cruz drops a lot of passes. I believe the root cause of that lies in a personalty trait of his, one where he tends to lose focus. This can be backed up by not only his on the field play (having 10+ drops in consecutive seasons), as well as in some of his off the field issues (getting kicked out of school for bad grades). That doesn't mean I think he's a horrible player; it just means I think he'll have difficulty overcoming that particular flaw in his game.

And if someone brings up that Calvin Johnson had x number of drops his second year as a starter, then yes, age and maturity as a player are germane to the discussion.

About Cruz not being injury prone, he did spend a good part of his rookie season on IR. Call it a stash move or not, an independent doctor said that Cruz would have needed to miss at least 6 games with that hammy... So, it's not like he hasn't had any issues with injuries in his career thus far.

Cruz has not led the league in drops in either of the last two seasons.

Last year Calvin Johnson, Wes Welker, and Brandon Marshall all had more drops than Cruz.

In 2011 Wes Welker, Roddy White, and Brandon Marshall all had more drops than Cruz.

So, just because some other good receivers have had more drops that means we should ignore Cruz' drops?

That's a lot like saying that just because some celebrities have a drug problem that yours isn't a big deal (hypothetically speaking of course; I'm not actually trying to imply that you have a drug problem).

It doesn't matter what the statistics say about these other receivers. Cruz needs to focus more on catching the football. For 2 season's in a row he's had the habit of taking his eyes off of the ball too soon, and it's resulted in a lot of easy catches that were dropped. . It's an area that Cruz needs to be more consistent in.

Eh, I don't think that his drops are due to a lack of focus . . . . more likely a focus on where he's going to run after the catch instead of focusing on just making the catch. To me, that's different than a "lack of focus". More like just focusing on the wrong thing for a split second.

No, that is the definition of lack of focus. He's taking his focus off of securing the ball and shifting it elsewhere.